December 28, 1947: A Dream Backfield Wins a Title for the Chicago Cardinals

"The Dream Backfield." Left to right: Paul Christman

Pat Harder, Marshall Goldberg and Charley Trippi.

December 28, 1947: The NFL Championship Game is played at Comiskey Park in Chicago. As was tradition at the time, the Western Division Champions hosted the Championship Game in odd-numbered years, the Eastern Division Champions in even-numbered years. So, this year, it is the Chicago Cardinals hosting the Philadelphia Eagles.

This was the 1st title game for the Eagles, established in 1933, coached by Earle "Greasy" Neale, and led by running back Steve Van Buren. They finished 8-4, including a loss to the Cardinals just 3 weeks earlier, 45-21 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Thus, they finished in a tie for the Eastern Division title, with their cross-State rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers. A Playoff was necessary, and the Eagles won it, 21-0 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The Steelers would not reach the postseason again until 1972, with the AFC Division Playoff won with "the Immaculate Reception."

The Cardinals, who dated their founding to a South Side athletic club in 1898, were charter members of the NFL in 1920. They had won the Championship in controversial fashion in 1925, but this was the 1st time they'd advanced to the Championship Game, which was 1st played in 1933.

They were playing under a cloud. Charles Bidwill, a lawyer who ran the company that ran the city's main arena, the Chicago Stadium, had bought the team in 1933, rescuing it from Depression-induced bankruptcy in 1933. He had been a part-owner of the Chicago Bears, and had to sell his share to buy the Cardinals. He had died on April 19, from pneumonia, only 51 years old. His widow, Violet, became the 1st woman to own an NFL team.

No one knew it at the time, but the Cardinals were on the verge of their greatest era -- and had sown the seeds of their own destruction.

Jimmy Conzelman, a former NFL quarterback who was player-coach of the 1928 NFL Champion Providence Steam Roller, was the Cards' head coach. He had what had become known as "The Dream Backfield": Quarterback Paul Christman, halfback Charley Trippi of the University of Georgia's 1942 National Champions; halfback Marshall "Biggie" Goldberg of the University of Pittsburgh's 1937 National Champions; and fullback Pat Harder.

Halfback Elmer Angsman was sometimes considered part of The Dream Backfield. In the era of "single-platoon football," each of these men played both offense and defense, and each played it very well. Indeed, football historians usually consider Harder to be the best defensive back of the 1940s, and Goldberg not that far behind him. Harder was also an excellent placekicker.

With the Bears having won the NFL Championship in 1940, 1941, 1943 and 1946, the Cards were reading to take over. They went 9-3, their losses all coming on the road, against the Los Angeles Rams, the Washington Redskins and the New York Giants. They served notice on the Bears, beating them 31-7 at Comiskey and 30-21 at Wrigley Field.

Game-worn 1947 Chicago Cardinals jersey.
Number 24 was backup back John "Red" Cochran.

Due to the Eastern Division Playoff, the Championship Game was moved to December 28, its latest date thus far. Although Comiskey Park was not right on Lake Michigan, it was still only 29 degrees at kickoff. Knowing that the field was frozen, the Cardinals wore sneakers instead of cleats, which was legal at the time.

The game kicked off at 1:05 PM Central Time (2:05 Eastern). Trippi scored a touchdown on a 44-yard run in the 1st quarter. In the 2nd, Angsman scored on a 70-yard run in the 2nd quarter. Tommy Thompson threw a 53-yard touchdown pass to Pat McHugh, to close the Eagles to within 14-7 at halftime.

Special teams made the difference: In the 3rd quarter, Trippi returned a Joe Muha punt 75 yards for a touchdown, making it 21-7 Cards. The Eagles marched downfield, and Van Buren ran the ball in from the 1-yard line to make it 21-14. But in the 4th quarter, Angsman broke off a 70-yard run to make it 28-14. Russ Craft scored on a 1-yard run, but the Eagles got no closer. The Cardinals won, 28-21.

The teams played each other in the opening game of the next season, also at Comiskey, and the Cardinals won, 21-14. However, Cardinal tackle Stan Mauldin died from a head injury sustained in the game, the 1st NFL player known to have died as a result of an in-game condition. Still, the Cardinals may have been even better than in the season before: They lost their next game, to the Bears, and then ran the table, finishing 11-1. But they lost the Championship Game to the Eagles in Philadelphia.

That would be their last Playoff game for 26 years, and their last NFL championship game, under any name, for 58 years. The '47 title game would be their last postseason victory for 51 years. 

The '48 title game was Conzelman's last in any active role in football, as he was making more money and getting less stress in his off-season job in the advertising industry. It was also Goldberg's last game before retiring as a player. Christman last played for the Cardinals in 1949, Harder in 1950, while Trippi hung on until 1955.

In 1949, Violet Bidwill married Walter Wolfner, a St. Louis-based businessman who got rich selling coffee to the U.S. Army in World War I, who took over the operation of the Cardinals. From 1949 to 1959, 11 seasons, they went through 8 different head coaches. From 1950 onward, they never had another winning season, bottoming out at 1-10-1 in 1953. And, despite not winning another title until 1963, the Bears surged ahead of the Cardinals in popularity in Chicago.

After flirting with moving to Minneapolis, and even playing some "home games" at the new Metropolitan Stadium nearby, Wolfner moved the team to his hometown for the 1960 season, fully aware that there was already a baseball team named the St. Louis Cardinals, with whom they shared Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) until 1965, and Busch Memorial Stadium thereafter.

Violet died in 1962, and left her 80 percent ownership of the team to her adopted sons, Charles Bidwill Jr. and William Bidwill. They immediately fired Wolfner. He sued, claiming that, as adoptees, they couldn't inherit the team. The court didn't buy it, and Wolfner was out. In 1972, Billy Bidwill bought out his brother "Stormy." In 1988, he moved the team, becoming the Phoenix Cardinals. In 1993, he renamed them the Arizona Cardinals. They reached Super Bowl XLIII, but lost it. The 2022 season will be the 75th in a row that they will not end as NFL Champions.

UPDATE: The Arizona Cardinals have established a Ring of Honor. It includes all Chicago Cardinals in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio: John "Paddy" Driscoll, Ernie Nevers, Charlie Trippi, Marshall "Biggie" Goldberg, Dick "Night Train" Laine, Ollie Matson, 1947 NFL Championship coach Jimmy Conzelman, and team owner Charles Bidwill.

*

December 28, 1947 was a Sunday. Aurelio Rodríguez, a fine-fielding 3rd baseman for several teams, mainly the 1970s Detroit Tigers, was born on this day.

Baseball was out of season. In the Basketball Association of America, the league that would rename itself the NBA in 1949, there was 1 game: The St. Louis Bombers beat the Baltimore Bullets, 67-63 at the St. Louis Arena.

And there were 2 games in the NHL. The New York Rangers and the Toronto Maple Leafs played to a tie, 1-1 at the old Madison Square Garden. And the Detroit Red Wings beat the Boston Bruins, 3-0 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. The Boston Bruins and the Chicago Black Hawks were not scheduled.

October 16, 1937: The Seven Blocks of Granite

The 1937 Fordham offense.

Back row, left to right: Joe Granski, Dom Principe, Steve Kazlo.

Middle: Angelo Fortunato.

Front, left to right: Johnny Druze, Al Babartsky, Vince Lombardi,

Alex Wojciechowicz, Mike Kochel, Ed Franco, Harry Jacunski.

October 16, 1937: Fordham University and the University of Pittsburgh play to a scoreless tie in front of 52,000 fans at the Polo Grounds, where Fordham played home games that were too big for their on-campus stadium in The Bronx.

Pitt were coached by Dr. John "Jock" Sutherland. He was a Scottish immigrant, hence "Jock"; and a licensed dentist, hence he was usually called "Doctor Jock." On the field, the Panthers were led by two-way back Marshall "Biggie" Goldberg, later a star for the Chicago Cardinals.

Fordham were coached by Jim Crowley, who had been one of the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame in 1924, and were led by the most famous offensive line in college football history, "The Seven Blocks of Granite." (The Four Horsemen's line had been called the Seven Mules.)

This line featured 2 future Pro Football Hall-of-Famers. Center Alex Wojciechowicz would star in the NFL for the Detroit Lions and the Philadelphia Eagles, but it was one of the guards who would make a bigger impact, though not as a player: Vince Lombardi. A 3rd future Hall-of-Famer, future Giants owner Wellington Mara, was then a student at Fordham.

The Blocks were: Center, Wojciechowicz; guards, Lombardi and Mike Kochel; tackles, Al Babartsky and Ed Franco; and ends, Leo Paquin, replaced in 1937 by Harry Jacunski, and Johnny Druze. Druze lived until 2005, and was the last survivor.

Monument to the Seven Blocks of Granite,

on the Fordham campus

Both teams finished the season undefeated, Pitt ranked Number 1 in the country, Fordham Number 3. Neither team accepted a bowl bid, though it should be kept in mind that the bowls were still, for the most part, a new idea. The Rose Bowl had been played since 1902, and continuously since 1916; however, the Orange Bowl and the Sugar Bowl only started in 1935, and the Cotton Bowl in 1937.

This was the 3rd season in a row that these teams played each other at the Polo Grounds, and it was the 3rd time in a row that the game ended 0-0. The teams would face each other again in Pittsburgh on October 29, 1938. Fordham weren't so lucky this time: Pitt beat them, 24-13. It was the only game Fordham lost all season. From 1935 to 1938, Fordham went 24-3-7, while Pitt went 32-4-4.

*

October 16, 1937 was a Saturday. Baseball season had ended 6 days earlier, also at the Polo Grounds, with the New York Yankees beating the New York Giants in Game 5 to clinch the World Series. The NHL season wouldn't start for another 19 days. There was a professional basketball league at this time, the National Basketball League, but results of individual games are not readily available.

But there were other college football games that day, including the following:

* Alabama beat Tennessee, 14-7 at Shields-Watkins Field (now Neyland Stadium) in Knoxville, Tennessee.

* The University of California beat the College of the Pacific, 20-0 at California Memorial Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Berkeley. Cal finished Number 2 in the national rankings, between Pitt and Fordham, and beat Alabama in the Rose Bowl.

As for Pacific: From 1933 to 1946, the Stockton, California-based school was coached by "The Grand Old Man of Football," Amos Alonzo Stagg, now 75 years old. For 41 seasons before coming to Stockton, he had coached at the University of Chicago. He last coached at Stockton College in 1958, at the age of 96, and lived to be 103. The school's name was changed to the University of the Pacific in 1961, but it dropped its football program in 1995.

* Auburn beat Mississippi State, 33-7 at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama.

* Michigan State beat Missouri, 2-0 at Memorial Stadium (now Faurot Field) in Columbia, Missouri. Auburn beat Michigan State in the Orange Bowl.

* Louisiana State beat Mississippi, 13-0 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

* Rice University and the University of Tulsa played to a tie, 0-0 at Rice Field in Houston.

* Colorado beat Brigham Young University, 14-0 at Colorado Stadium (now Folsom Field) in the Denver suburb of Boulder, Colorado. They were led by running back Byron White, so fast he was nicknamed "Whizzer."

Rice beat Colorado in the Cotton Bowl. In 1939, the NCAA held its 1st basketball tournament, and Colorado were 1 of the last 4 teams in it. Whizzer White played on this team as well. Through the 2022 NCAA Tournament, he is the only person ever to play in both a bowl game and what we now call the Final Four. He played 3 seasons in the NFL. He served in U.S. Naval Intelligence in World War II, and was awarded 2 Bronze Stars. As if that wasn't enough, he went into law, then into politics. From 1962 to 1993, he was a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

* Texas Tech beat Arizona, 20-0 at Tech Field in Lubbock.

* West Virginia beat Xavier, 13-7 at Corcoran Stadium, Xavier's home field, in Cincinnati. West Virginia went on to beat Texas Tech in the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas.

* Oklahoma and Nebraska, eventually to be arch-rivals, played to a 0-0 tie at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.

* Washington and Washington State, arch-rivals, played to a 7-7 tie at Rogers Field in Pullman, Washington. The rivalry's trophy, the Apple Cup, would not be introduced until 1963.

* Army lost to Yale, 15-7 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York. Navy played Harvard to a 0-0 tie, at Thompson Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland.

* Carnegie Tech, whose campus was pretty much next-door to Pitt's, beat Notre Dame, 9-7 at Pitt's facility, named Pitt Stadium. In 1967, Carnegie Institute of Technology merged with the nearby Mellon Institute of Industrial Research, to form Carnegie-Mellon University. They now compete in NCAA Division III. Also in Pittsburgh, Duquesne University now competes in NCAA Division I FCS (formerly known as Division I-AA).

* Among New York City teams other than Fordham, Columbia beat Penn, 26-6 at Baker Field in Manhattan. New York University beat St. John's -- not the University in Queens, but the College in Annapolis, Maryland -- 59-0 at Ohio Field in The Bronx. I can't find a reference to when St. John's dropped football, but NYU did so after the 1952 season.

City College of New York beat Susquehanna University, 8-6 in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. CCNY dropped football after the 1950 season, while Susquehanna now competes in NCAA Division III.

Manhattan College lost to Villanova, 20-0 at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. So you have a school named Manhattan, whose campus is in The Bronx, and playing football in Brooklyn. After the 1942 season, the manpower drain of World War II led Manhattan to suspend its program, and it has never been restarted.

* Among New Jersey teams, Princeton beat the University of Chicago, 16-7 at Stagg Field in Chicago. And Rutgers beat Springfield College, 26-0 at Pratt Field in Springfield, Massachusetts. Springfield, formerly the Springfield YMCA, birthplace of basketball, now competes in NCAA Division III.

* The day after these games, Santa Clara University beat the University of Portland, 27-0 at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco. Santa Clara went on to beat LSU in the Sugar Bowl. Portland shut down their football program after the 1949 season, and should not be confused with Portland State University, who compete in NCAA Division I FCS. Santa Clara eventually dropped to NCAA Division II, and shut their program down after the 1992 season.